Sep 13, 202321 min read

Legal Ombudsman File Reference: F155593 ERef:000218047902

Legal Ombudsman File Reference: F155593 ERef:000218047902

Yahoo

Inbox

Shantanu Panigrahi <shantanupanigrahi@yahoo.com>

To:

Enquiries Legal Ombudsman

Cc:

Northkent Magistrates Court, Force Control Kent Police, ravina@olivessolicitors.com

Tue, 12 Sept at 21:14

Dear Legal Ombudsman

I have not formalised any complaint against Olives Solicitors Limited to the Legal Ombudsman. There were some misunderstandings in communications between us but these have now been resolved. The main question that arose is whether Olives Solicitors would represent me on both matters of (a) stalking offence, and (b) malicious communications offence as it was minded to only deal with the latter as set out in our contractual agreement attached: FrOlivesSolicitorsletter19April2023.docx.

Whichever aspect of the two separated proceedings Olives Solicitors is representing me on, they are doing a fine job now and I am more than satisfied that it should continue with its good work. It would rather depend on what I am charged with by Kent Police, whether on stalking, or on malicious communications, or both these offences. So far I have not been charged with any offences whatsoever for which I have been bailed to appear in Medway Police Station on 28 September 2023, 1600, hours and on 10 October 2023, 1600 hours. There are no criminal proceedings on these matters for which I have been served with court-summons to a criminal court. When I do get court-summons at my home address, I will arrange a meeting with Olives Solicitors to see what it can do for me, if anything.

The Trial of 10 November 2023 2 pm is specifically for the Speeding Offence as attached: LetterfromNKMCHearingTrial10Nov2023.pdf. Since I have given all my defence in written form with over 50 emails to the North Keng Magistrates Court since May 2023, I shall not be attending the Court on this day being paranoid schizophrenic (see attached FrBritttonHouse (CAREPLAN_DrEmmanuelOranusi3July2023)12Jul2023.docx) and let the Court decide the matter as appropriate by listening to the Case for the Prosecution from Kent Police. The document states clearly that in case of my non-attendance that Court may take the action as it considers appropriate. I am happy with that.

Yours sincerely

Dr Shantanu Panigrahi

3 Hoath Lane

Wigmore

Gillingham

Kent ME8 0SL

United Kingdom

Tel: 07967789619

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On Tuesday, 12 September 2023 at 20:36:25 BST, Enquiries <enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk> wrote:

File Reference: F155593

Dear Dr. Panigrahi

Your complaint about Olives Solicitors Limited

Thank you for your emails of 15 July 2023 regarding your complaint. We apologise for the delay in responding to you, this is due to the current demand for our service.

Having reviewed the documentation you have provided to us, it is not clear whether you have complained to your service provider. You will need to do this first and allow them up to eight weeks to respond. We have a template complaint letter available on our website. If you have already complained and either received a final response that you are not happy with or have waited eight weeks from the date of your complaint, we may be able to help.

Please complete our online complaint checker. You will need to provide personal information and documents such as:

A copy of your formal complaint, and the service provider’s responses including any final response. 

If the service provider did not respond to your complaint within eight weeks: Proof of delivery, e.g., a recorded delivery receipt or confirmation that your complaint was sent to a valid email address for the service provider. If you did not send your complaint recorded delivery, please confirm the date you sent the complaint, and we will contact the Service Provider to confirm receipt of your complaint. If the Service Provider says they did not receive your letter of complaint, you may be asked to resend your letter of complaint.  

Do not delay, we cannot progress without this information and you have a maximum of six months after you receive their final response to bring your complaint to us. 

For complaints referred to us after 1 April 2023, the matter complained about must have taken place in the previous year or, if it happened more than a year ago, you must have become aware of it in the past year. Come to us as soon as you can after trying to resolve your complaint with your service provider – don’t delay. You have a maximum of six months after you receive their final response to bring your complaint to us.

When responding, please tell us your file reference which is shown at the top of this email. Do not send any original documents by post as we scan all our incoming mail to make computer copies and then destroy the originals. Please send any information requested to our email address: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk. 

If we do not hear from you, we will assume that you do not wish to continue with your complaint and will close our file. We will not try to contact you again.

Kind Regards

General Enquiries Team

Legal Ombudsman

Telephone: 0300 555 0333

Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

www.legalombudsman.org.uk

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For information on how we handle your personal data, see our privacy notice. www.legalombudsman.org.uk/privacy This e-mail and any attachments are confidential and intended solely for the addressee and may also be privileged or exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you are not the addressee, or have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately, delete it from your system and do not copy, disclose or otherwise act upon any part of this e-mail or its attachments. Internet communications are not guaranteed to be secure or virus-free. The Legal Ombudsman does not accept responsibility for any loss arising from unauthorised access to, or interference with, any Internet communications by any third party, or from the transmission of any viruses. Replies to this e-mail may be monitored by the Legal Ombudsman for operational or business reasons.

Download all attachments as a zip file

(a) FrOlives Solicitorsletter19April2023.docx 24.5kB

(b) LetterfromNKMCHearingTrial10Nov2023_2pm.pdf 1.5MB

(a)

Olives Solicitors

Our Reference:

Your Reference:

Date: 19th April 2023

Private and Confidential

Mr Shantanu Panigrahi

3 Hoath Lane

Gillingham

Kent ME8 0SL

Dear Sirs

Re: Criminal Law Matter

I write further to your attendance at Medway Police Station on the 28th March 2023 to thank you for instructing Olives Solicitors in connection with your arrest, detention, interview and charge of Malicious Communications. We confirm that we shall be pleased to act for you in the matter.

This letter, and the accompanying terms and conditions of business, set out the basis under which we will carry out the work on your behalf. They explain how we we will manage your matter and detail the people who will be responsible for the work. They also set out how your case will be funded. Please do read both the letter and terms of business carefully, but do not hesitate to contact me if you have any queries or would like to discuss any term further.

Responsibility for your matter

I am a Trainee Solicitor and shall have day-to-day conduct and supervision of your mater, under the supervision of Mr Dotun Ogunfolu who is the principle of the firm with overall responsibility. I can usually be contacted by telephone on the number at the top of this letter between 9.30 am and 5.30 pm on weekdays. There may be occasion when I am not available to speak to you directly, if this occurs, you will be able to leave a message with my assistant who will help you with any queries.

Scope of work

The work that we will undertake for you will include:

To advise and represent you in relation to all aspects of an investigation into alleged offences involving you, including: obtaining your instructions; attending upon, liaising and communicating on your behalf with the police as reasonably necessary; applying for negotiating the condition of any police and/or court bail; advising upon any proposed non-charge outcomes or the available and appropriate plea/s to any charg/s; explaining and advising upon all applicable legislation and procedure.

AND

To advise and represent you in a plea of gulty or defence of the charge/s against you, including: obtaining your instructions; all necessary court appearances, considering and advising upon prosecution papers and any other evidence; attending upon, liaising and connunicating on your behalf with the police and the Crown Prosecution Service as reasonably necessary; applying for and negotiating the conditions of any bail; advising upon, preparing and making appropriate submissions on sentence; advising upon, preparing and presenting any appropriate evidence in support of mitigation; contacting liaising with and obtaining references/statements reports from any witnesses; explaining and advising upon all applicable legislation and procedure, including the nature and effect of any sentence and as to the merit and grounds for any possible appeal. If required: briefing and instructing counsel if agreed.

Funding

As already explained to you at the police station, we are acting for you under the Government Legal Representation Scheme. We are providing you advice and assistance at the police station under the scheme known as Police Station Attendance Scheme. This provides you with free legal advice whilst you have been arrested or have to attend a police station during a criminal investigation. Every time.

I can confirm that should you be charged with an offence, we are able in certain instances to act for you under the government’s legal aid scheme. In order to make an application for legal aid funding, we will require evidence of your income and expenditure, and details of any government benefits you receive. The application will also require details of family circumstances such as any partner or children currently living with you. In order to progress the application please ensure this information is made available to us as soon as possible. If granted a Legal Aid Representation Order you may not have to pay a contribution to the cost of your case. In this circumstances, it will not be necessary for you to be given an estimate of thelikely total costs of matters. However, you should be aware that should you be convicted of the charge, the court will make an order that you pay the prosecutions costs and any compensation, if applicable.

Automatic legal aid funding

Legal aid applicants aged under 18 or those in receipt of government benefits do not need to pay for the work we do in the magistrates’ court or the Crown Court. The relevant benefits are

- Income Support,

- Income-Based Job Seeker’s Allowance,

- Universal Credit,

- Guaranteed State Pension Credit and

- Income-related Employment and Support Allownance.

A copy of the National Insurance Number is required in oreder to confirm the government benefits.

Eligibility considerations in other CasesThe decision to award legal aid is based on the details of the case, called the Interests of Justice Test (Considerations of issues like any previous convictions, the nature of the offence and the risk of custody), and the financial situation, called the Means Test (consideration of your financial circumstances including household income, outgoings and expenses, any capital and equity, and any family circumstances).

What Does the Legal Representation Order Cover

Unless otherwise specified the Order will cover preparation of your case from commencement to conclusion including representation at Court during the proceedings. In addition, at the Crown Court, the order will allow us to instruct a barrister on your behalf. The Order will further cover the fess of experts, interpreters and other disbursements incurred in your case.

You have a legal duty to inform us or the court of any changes to your financial circumstances. We must also inform you about the possible withdrawal of your Legal Representation. The Legal representation maybe withdrawn if during the course of the proceedings, you give us wrong or misleading information or unreasonable instruction or you fail to co-operate with our reasonable request causing us to withdraw from acting for you.

Crown Court – Recovery of Defence Costs Order

If your case goes to the Crown Court for trial you will not automatically qualify for legally aided representation once you have completed an application form. After you have been means tested, you may have to pay towards the cost of your defence. This could be from your income while the case is ongoing and/or from your capital, if you are convicted.

You will be asked to provide evidence of your income and assets. If you do not, your payments could be increased which would result in you paying more towards your defence costs. If you do not tell the truth on your legal aid application about your income, assets and expenditure you could be prosecuted.

You will not have to pay towards the costs of your case if you are under 18 when you make your application or if you receive any of the following benefits: income support, income-based jobseeker’s allowance, guaranteed state pension credit or income related employment and support allowance.

You may have to pay towards the costs if your monthly disposable income is above a certain level. If this is the case, you will receive a Contribution Order from the court and you will have to make payments as required under the Order. The first payment will be due within 28 days of your case being committed, sent or transferred for trial.

You must tell the court about any changes to your financial circumstances during your case because a change may affect the amount you have to pay towards your defence costs. If you don’t think you can afford to pay, or think that a mistake has been made, you can ask for a review of the amount the court has told you to pay.

At the end of the case, if you are found not guilty, any payments youhave made will be refunded with interest. If you paid late or not at all and action was taken against you, the costs of this actionwill be deducted from the refund.

If you are found guilty, you may have to pay towards your defence costs from any Capital assets you may have. This would only apply if:

. You have £30,000 or more of assets, for example: savings, equity in property, shares or Premium Bonds; and

. Any payments you have already made have not covered your total defence costs.

You will be told at the end or your case if you have to make a payment from capital.

Discharge and Revocation of the representation Order

Although we are acting for you under the representation order, in some circumstances, for example as stated above the Legal Service Commission may discharge or revoke the order. If the order is discharged you will be liable for all your costs from the start of the case because you will be treated as if you had never been legally aided in the first place. If you have any questions regarding the above then please do not hesitate to contact me.

Consenting to Audit Inspection

As oart of our Contract requirements with the Legal Aid Agency, we are obliged to carry out an audit inspection of our files. This may include your file at a later stage once your case has come to a conclusion. If you do not wish for your file to be subject to an Audit Inspection by a regulatory organisation, then please let us know. If you do not inform us, we will assume that you are happy for your case to be inspected.

Oives Solicitors take data privacy seriously and when we process your personal data we are processing it in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). For more information on what type of data we collect, the basis for doing so, what we do with your data and other related questions, information is available at www.olivessolicitors.com/privacy-policy/ or you can request a coy of our privacy policy and we would make same available to you.

Data protection

We use the information you provide primarily for the provision of legal services to you and for related purposes including:

. undating and enhancing client records;

‘ analysis to help us manage our practice;

. statutory returns;

. legal and regulatory compliance.

Our use of that information is submect to your instructions, the Data Protection Act 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (Regulation (EU) 2016/679), and our duty of confidentiality. Please note that our work for you may require us to give information to third parties such as expert witnesses and other professional advisers. You have a right of access under data protection legislation to the personal data that we hold on you.

Cloud Computing

We use cloud storage for client files. Our cloud software provider is LEAP. LEAP’s cloud infrastructure is provided and maintained by industry leading cloud-platform provider Amazon Web Services. Amazon Web Services demonstrates a commitment to information security at every level of the orgainisation and complies with internatially recognised standards, the EU Data Protection Directive, Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. If you object to your files/other details being stored in this way, please let us know.

Our Service

We aim to offer you an efficient and effective service so that you will have confidence in us. At Olives Solicitors, we are committed to providing high quality legal advice and client care.

We will update you by telephone and in writing with progress on your matter on a regular basis and as often as necessary. We will communicate with you in plain language.

Complaints

We are committed to high quality legal advice and client care. If you are however unhappy about any aspect of the service, please contact the caseworker dealing with your matter in the first instance so that we can do our best to resolve the problem. If you still have queries or concerns, please contact Dotun Ogunfolu who is the Principal of the firm and to whom any final issues can be reported.

We are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and complaints and redress mechanisms are provided through the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Legal Ombudsman. We have a procedure in place that details how we handle complaints which is available on request sent to us in writing. We have eight weeks to consider your complaint.

If we are unable to resolve matters to your satisfaction within eight weeks, or there are exceptional reasons for not waiting for this period, you may contact the Legal Ombudsman in writing by telephone or email respectively: PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ; Tel: 0300 555 0333; Minicom: 0300 555 1777 or enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk, to consider your complaint.

Please note that the complaint must be referred to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of the date of the written response from our complaints manager.

You have an overall time limit of referring any complaint to the Legal Ombudsman of

i. Six years from the act/omission that you are dissatisfied with; or

ii. Three years from when you reasonabley have known there was a reason to complain.

In some circumstances you may also be able to seek redress from our regulator, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems.page)

How you can help us

Please provide us with clear, timely and accurate instructions and all documentation required to deal with your matter in a timely manner.

Thank you once again for your instructions an dshould you have any questions regarding the above and/or the attached terms and conditions of business, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours Sincerely

(Signed: Olives)

Ravina Karir

OLIVES SOLICITORS

Direct Email: ravina@olivessolicitors.com

2 Batchelor Street, Chatham, Kent ME4 4BJ

Tel: 0330 948753 Fax: 01634 753548

Email: info:olivessolicitors.com

Olives Solicitors

Our Reference:

Your Reference:

Date: 19th April 2023

Private and Confidential

Mr Shantanu Panigrahi

3 Hoath Lane

Gillingham

Kent ME8 0SL

Dear Sirs

Re: Your Criminal Law Matter at Medway Police Station

I write to confirm the outcome of your arrest and interview by police at Medway Police Station on 28th March 2023 when you were represented by Philippa Beswick of Olives Solicitors

You were questioned for the offences of malicious communications

Your Instructions

Your instructions were that you are not the sender of any emails and your account must have been hacked

Our Advice

We explained the elements of the alleged offence and we explained the usual police station procedure and you rights as a suspect in police custody.

We told you that after the interview, the police have a number of options:

1) to take no further action against you,

2) to caution you.

3) To charge you to court with an offence, or

4) To give you bail to return to the police station on another day whiles they make further enquiries

We informed you about the disclosure made by the police and that you were to be interviewed under caution. We explained the caution to you in the three parts as follows:

1. pointing out that you have the right to remain silent

2. explaining adverse inference to you that, if you have a defence or reasonable explanation and refuse to give it when being questioned, should the matter proceed to court and you decide to give the explanation the court may not believe you, in the absence of a reasonable excuse; and

3. anything you say may be used in evidence.

You were advised to advance denials in interview and answer the questions.

Outcome

You have been Bailed to Return to Medway Police Station on 18th June 2023 at 5pm

Should you fail to return on bail to the police station when advised to do so then you could be charged with an offence of failing to answer your bail contrary to the Bail Act.

Action to be taken

To assist us in carrying out the work as efficiently as possible, please could you ensure that all information provided is to the best of your knowledge complete, accurate and up to date. Please could you also notify us of any changes or variations to that information which may arise after the date it is passed to us and of any new circumstances that might be relevant to the work that we have agree to do for you.

Please let me know if my understanding of your instructions, as detailed above, is in any way incorrect or if you require further clarification on any issue.

Yours Sincerely

(Signed: Olives)

Ravina Karir

OLIVES SOLICITORS

Direct Email: ravina@olivessolicitors.com

2 Batchelor Street, Chatham, Kent ME4 4BJ

Tel: 0330 948753 Fax: 01634 753548

Email: info:olivessolicitors.com

(b)

North Kent Magistrates’ Court (1966)

Sitting at Medway Magistrates Court

ALL ENQUIRIES: PO BOX CH4, The Courthouse, The Brook, Chatham, ME4 4JZ

Tel: 01634 830232, Fas: 0870 324 0037 Email: northkent@justice.gov.uk

Office Opening Hours: 9.00am to 5pm, Monday to Friday

__________________________________________________________________________________

Dr Shantanu PANIGRAHI

3 HOATH LANE

WIGMORE

GILLINGHAM

KENT ME8 0SL

[Received: 11.30 am 7 June 2023]

Case number: 0462300074226

Born: 8 August 1957

URN: 46SJ1327123

Summons on Referral to Court

A magistrate has decided that your case should be referred to a full court hearing

On 10 November 2023 at 2.00 pm

At Medway Magistrates’ Court

The Courthouse, PO Box CH4, The Brook, Chatham, Kent, ME4 4JZ (telephone 01634 830232).

Reason

For trial

Attendance

If you attend court, you must arrive 30 minutes before the time shown above. A listing time is not a guaranteed hearing time. You may be required to wait.

Warning

If you do not attend, the court may still deal with the case in your absence. If the court does not have up to date information about your financial circumstances you maybe ordered to pay a fine that is more than you can afford.

Date: 1 June 2023

Cases

Charge initiated by: Chief Constable KENT POLICE of Medway Police Station, Pursers Way, Eastbridge, Gillingham, Kent, ME7 1NE

462300074226/1 Date of Charge: 05/04/2023

Prosecutor Reference: 2300XX0000000004742D

On 05/10/2022 at Boxley om the county of Kent drove a motor vehicle, namely a FORD FIESTA TITANIUM TURBO – 5 DOOR SALOON Index GH17AZZW, on a road, namely A229 Chatham Road, subject to a local traffic order, namely The Kent Council (Various Roads, Maidstone) (Speed Limits) (Consolidation)Order 2020, at a speed exceeding 50 miles per hour.

Contrary to the above local traffic Order and sections 84 and 89(1) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 and Schedule 2 to the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988.

The sentence for this offence can be endorsed on your driving record

____________________________________________________________________

Dr Shantanu PANIGRAHI 2 June 2023/SUMRTC_47_0/8298/1

North Kent Magistrates’s Court

Code 1966

__________________________________________________________________________________

Referral to Full Court Hearing

Your case was considered by the court under the single justice procedure. However, owing to the reasons given, your case has now been referred to a hearing before a full magistrates’ court. For information on the reason, see below.

For trial

At the next hearing, the magistrates will receive evidence either in the form of written statements or from any witnesses that attends court. You must attend, and bring with you any witness that you will call to give evidence on your behalf. If you do not agree with any statement being read to the court, you must inform the prosecution immediately.

Advice and help

If you need advice on what to do you should get help from a lawyer or advice agency at once. If you cannot afford a lawyer, you may be able to get free advice about your case. For more information see

www.lawsociety.org.uk/for-the-public/common-legal-issues/criminal/

Do not wait until you come to court.

If you need any general help about this summons contact the court office. PLEASE NOTE: Court staff are not able to give you specific advice on how to respond to the allegation.

Dr Shantanu PANIGRAHI 2 June 2023/SUMRTC_47_0/8298/1

(c)

NHS

Kent and Medway

NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust

Medway Community Mental Health Team

Britton House

Britton Farm

High Street

Gillingham

Kent ME7 1AL

T: 0300 303 3189

www.kmpt.nhs.uk

Our Ref: GP/EO/mlh

Date: 03 July 2023 (received 11 July 2023)

Clinic date: 26 June 2023

PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL

Dr A Shah

Long Catlis Road Surgery

Parkwood Health Centre

Long Catlis Road

Rainham

Kent

ME8 9PR

THIS LETTER SERVES AS CARE PLAN DOCUMENTATION

Dear Dr Shah

Mr Shantanu Panigrahi

NHS Number: 628 477 1487 Date of birth: 8 Aug 1957

Primary Address: 3 Hoath Lane, Gillingham, Kent, ME8 0SL

Diagnosis:

Paranoid Schizophrenia

Current Medications:

Risperidone 2 mg bd

Sertraline 150 mg daily

Depakote 500 mg

Proposed Changes

-to take risperidone 4 mg at night, no morning dose

-to start aripiprazole 5 mg daily

-to increase Depakote to 500 mg morning and 750 mg nocte

-to continue with sertraline 150 mg daily

Review:

I spoke to Shantanu via telephone for a scheduled appointment on 26/06/23. He described being in crisis over a period of time and has been arrested by police four times in the last 18 months. He said he was accused of stalking, malicious communications and harassment. He tells me that he attended Medway Police Station recently for further questioning. He believes that Trolls hacked into his email and were responsible for all the police have accused him of but the police are not having it. His laptop and phones were taken away by the police. He also informed me that he took the Greenwich University to tribunal and lost the case. He believes that the state is against him and want to repatriate him back to India but says he is not going anywhere as he will resist them.

He lives with his family and is unemployed. He is undergoing some therapy at the moment and that seems to be helping him to cope with current crisis. He is also planning for holidays with his family to Turkey and India. His appetite is good and sleeps about 4 to 6 hours at night and naps during the day. He smokes about 10 to 12 cigarettes a day but no alcohol of illicit drug use. He is complaint with meds and has not reported any side effects. He is willing to continue taking treatment.

On the phone, he sounded worried but was able to ventilate his mind. His speech was normal in rate and volume but content mixed with delusional ideas. In answer to my question he wondered whether it is because of his illness that he is reasoning the way he is. He described his mood as being up and down and most times feels depressed. He did not express suicidal ideas and there is no indication that he is physically harmful to anyone. In my view, the major risk is that of believing his delusional ideas and acting on them and also being vulnerable on the social media if he continues his exploits on the social media. His insight is limited and does appear to have capacity to consent on his treatment.

The suggested changes which he agrees with is as outlined above. GP to please adjust repeat prescriptions accordingly.

Yours sincerely

(Signed)

Dr Emmanuel Oranusi

Locum Consultant Psychiatrist

Medway Community Mental Health Team

Private & Confidential

Cc Mr Shantanu Panigrahi

3 Hoath Lane

Gillingham

Kent

ME8 0SL

Freephone number for the Samaritans: 116 123

CONTACT US NOW

Whatever you’re going through, call us free at any time, from any phone on 116 123.

We’re here round the clock, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. If you need a response immediately, it’s best to call us on the phone. This number is FREE to call. You don’t have to be suicidal to call us. Call us now on 116 123

www.livewellkent.org.uk – 0800 567 7699

Mental Health Matters – 0800 107 0160

Samaritans – 116 123

NHS – 111

GP and out of hours GP services

Urgent Mental Health Helpline – 0800 783 9111

Trust Chair: Dr Jackie Craissati

Chief Executive: Helen Greatorex

Trust Headquarters: Priority House, Hermitage Lane, Maidstone, Kent, Kent, ME16 9PH

For further details about how your personal data is managed by the organisation please visit https://kmpt.nhs.uk/about-us/confidentiality-and-gdpr/

____________________________________________________________________

Thank you for your enquiry

Yahoo

Inbox

Enquiries <enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk>

To:

Shantanu Panigrahi

Tue, 12 Sept at 21:16

Legal Ombudsman

Thank you for your email

We are currently dealing with a high volume of enquiries.

If you already have a case with us, we will add your email to the file. A colleague will be in touch with you just as soon as they review your email.

If you are contacting us for the first time about a complaint, please be aware that it could be up to 10 weeks before you hear from us, and at that stage, we may need to ask you for more information. We thank you for your patience and would like to reassure you that our teams are working very hard to review and respond to your email as quickly as possible.

Once we have confirmed that we have all the information we need, we will write to you to let you know that we have passed your case for formal assessment by an investigator.

Please be aware that there is a considerable wait for a case to be assessed by an investigator, which varies depending on the complexity of the case. More information about the wait times will be included in the letter we send to you at the time the case is added to a queue and can also be found on our website.

If you have concerns about the wait times and feel they may detrimentally impact on you or your case, for example, because of a financial hardship or serious health concern, please let us know.

Have you complained to your service provider?

We can only investigate a complaint once the service provider has had the chance to investigate it and respond. This means you need to make a formal complaint to them first. You can find further information on our website about how to complain to your service provider, including a template complaint letter.

How to complain to us

If you have already complained to your service provider and have not received a satisfactory response, then we might be able to help. The easiest way to check if we can help you is to use our complaint checker tool on our website. Alternatively, you can send us a completed complaint form, which is available to download from our website.

We will need your completed complaint form, along with a copy of your complaint to the service provider and copies of any responses you have received from them. Please only send us copies and not original documents.

You should be aware that we are also unable to accept documents from an online document storage facility such as Dropbox.

Do not send us any other information until we request it.

If you need to write to us, our address is:

Legal Ombudsman

PO Box 6806

Wolverhampton

WV1 9WJ

Our telephone number is 0300 555 0333. We are open from 10am to 4pm from Monday to Friday. Calls may be recorded and used for training and monitoring purposes.

Have we let you know we have passed your case for assessment?

If we have already let you know your case is awaiting assessment by an investigator, you do not need to do anything further at this stage. An investigator will contact you when they start working on the complaint. Please note that you may be waiting a considerable time before your case will be passed to an investigator. The letter we have sent to you should provide you with more specific information about these timescales. We also aim update you every three months.

Supporting you in making a complaint

You can find out more about how we work and how we can help you by visiting our website (www.legalombudsman.org.uk). Here you will find a copy of our complaint form and information about how to complain, along with useful factsheets.

We are committed to making sure the way we work does not put you at a disadvantage so in addition to our legal duty to provide reasonable adjustments for disabled people, if you need any help or support, please tell us about it and we will do our best to meet your needs. We also understand that your circumstances might change, along with the support that you need, so please let us know at any time and we will consider your request.

If you are requesting personal data under Freedom of Information or the Environmental Information Regulations or would like a copy of personal data under Data Protection please email infosec@legalombudsman.org.uk

Visit our website to find out how we use your personal data.

Legal Ombudsman File Reference: F155593 ERef:000218047902

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